Nadal has equalled the record of Vilas.

CNNSI Reports:

Rafael Nadal equalled Guillermo Vilas’ record of 53 consecutive claycourt wins when he beat Roger Federer 6-7 7-6 6-4 2-6 7-6 in the final of the Rome Masters.

Nadal’s victory, his fourth in a row over the Swiss world number one, made him the first player to win back-to-back titles in the Italian capital since Thomas Muster of Austria in 1995-96.

Was it one of the best matches ever on clay? Probably. The stakes were high as I mentioned yesterday. I said then:

This one promises to be another cracker.

It sure was! Federer came the closest he has ever come to beating Nadal on clay. That Nadal won was only apt though. It would have been a shame if he would have failed to equal Vilas after such a tremendous run. The setup - facing Federer for the Rome Masters finals at the backdrop of Federer in the midde of loosing streak to Nadal could not have been better scripted.

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Rafael Nadal is unbeaten versus Federer in the 2 times that they have met on clay. The last was the recent Monte Carlo match up. Nadal has also been triumphant the last 3 encounters versus Federer.

Nadal has stakes in the match apart from the rivalry with Federer too.

As CNN reports:

If Nadal beats the world number one on Sunday he will equal Guillermo Vilas’s all-time record of 53 consecutive wins on clay, set in 1977.

Federer has a lot at stake as well. He virtually has to win this one in the Rome Masters final if he wants to start making the necessary statements in the Federer-Nadal rivalry. Nadal’s time to make statements in hard courts will come in later. Federer will remain dominant versus Nadal on grass courts in all probability, if and when they do meet up on the surface. Federer would not like to be remembered second to Nadal on clay though and it is time he did some thing about it.

Forget that Federer was stretched to a tie break in the third versus Nalbandian. Forget that Nadal has been the guy in better form.

This one promises to be another cracker.

(A few earlier posts on related subjects - Nadal vs Federer, Nadal and Dominant Champs, the Clay Court season ahead of us)

This is quite special. Nadal has carried on from where he left a year ago on clay. He has already won at Monte Carlo and now has made Nadal-meat of the opponents at Barcelona - ending with 6-4, 6-4 and finally 6-0 versus Tommy Robredo in the Final.

In the process, he has overhauled Bjorg’s record of 46 consecutive wins on Clay. Only the 53 consecutive mark of Guillermo Vilas, who achieved the feat in 1977, remains.

Can Nadal achieve this? The right question should be ‘Who can stop him?’ Federer has been no match for Nadal on clay, yet. No one else looks close to beating him. There has been a lot of talk of how professional tennis has become so much more competitive which is essentially true.

However, a bit of recent history needs to be refreshed. When Sampras retired, people feared that he was the last dominating Champion men’s tennis would see. No sooner had we seen the back of Sampras, we had Federer dominating. Now, we have Nadal breaking past records of a comparitively less competitive era. In other sports as well, the dominations have existed. Case in point - Schumacher in F1 not long ago.

I guess the champions will make their mark, whatever the era. After all, they are champions - or campeón as they say it in Spanish.